The Misadventures of Annika Brisby (40 page)

“So maybe that’s what he meant back in Sofia when he said he was wondering when he’d meet me,” Annika wondered out loud. “It was like he already knew we would.”

“Of course he knew,” Finn confirmed. “He’s known his entire life. And then you told him you were from America and you bore such a resemblance to Magda, that he knew the moment he met you. When you wrote your name on Sariel’s family tree, that sealed it in certainty. And granite, come to think of it.”

“So why did your dad get so touchy about telling me all this?” she asked as she tried to process this information. “It doesn’t seem like such a bad prophecy. It’s actually kind of awesome.”

“Well, it’s only
his
half of it,” said Finn, looking melancholic all over again. “Yuri is destined for a very different outcome.”

“Does it have to do with Vladislav and Konstantin?”

“I suspect it does, although there’s little I can do about it right now. However,” he paused to clear his throat, “there
is
something I can do right now regarding the discord between you and Talvi. I know you care for him very much, or you wouldn’t have had such a terrible argument on the boat.”

“Oh shit…you heard that?”

“I wasn’t eavesdropping, Annika,” he said gently. “The walls were paper thin. What my brother said to you was completely unacceptable, but if Hilda had said the things to me that you said to him, I might be just as difficult to be around. I know he’s told you how deeply he cares for you. I know he’d love little more than to rewrite his history, if only to allow you to see him for who he truly is.” He gave her a knowing nod and Annika felt overcome with guilt. She recalled her cheap shots at how often Talvi washed his sheets, or how lucky she was that he wanted a redhead that month, but she especially regretted the statement she’d made about only keeping him as her sex slave when he’d asked to be so much more to her.

“I don’t know what to do, Finn. I’m so confused,” she said with her head in her hands.

“You needn’t be. That’s only your mind getting in the way of your instincts and your intuition,” he said in his naturally kind and understanding way. “What does your inner voice tell you? What does your heart say?” He put a comforting hand on her shoulder, and she was grateful that he was the one she was talking to. It seemed no matter what the situation, Finn shined a light on the unknown and made everything better. If his brother was really terrible, why did Finn care so much for his happiness? Why did Hilda and Runa adore him almost to a fault? If Talvi was such a rotten creature, how could he have had any friends at the Tortoise and Hare, or had the kind of turnout he did at his birthday party? Those guests weren’t there for the free cake and wine; they spent the night pulling the birthday boy in every direction imaginable because they all wanted him…but he only wanted her. Annika suddenly had a flashback to the look on Talvi’s face during their conversation in the cargo area of the ship, of him asking if she loved him, of him asking her to let him love her. It felt like a test, and it felt like she might’ve failed it. She’d never had her heart broken to pieces, but then again, she’d never been so in love with someone that it was ever at risk of breaking. That’s why she couldn’t marry Danny—because she already knew what every single day of the rest of her life would be like with him. But a lifetime with Talvi? Every day could be completely different from the last one, and he’d definitely keep her on her toes. Maybe the reason she’d never found the right man was because she wasn’t supposed to settle down with one in the first place. She was meant to have wild adventures with her elven lover, like traveling down one side of the Americas and coming back up the other. She turned to Finn with a bittersweet look in her eyes.

“I know how I feel in my heart, but I don’t know what I can do about it. I have to go home; we all know that.”

“Yes.”

“And there’s no way I can live forever, right?”

“Only with the most powerful magic, and it’s typically of the darkest variety…which I don’t recommend. I would say you had a better chance of lassoing the moons.”

Annika was crestfallen. There seemed no easy answer, no guarantee. It appeared all she could do was live in the moment, and hope for the best.

“You know, Annika, we elves are not truly immortal,” he began. “Nothing is, not even unicorns. Even the mountains are eventually worn down to dust. None of us know the amount of time we have in this life. I could die tomorrow. So could you. Or, we might live a long life without ever having the adventure that is true love, simply because we were afraid to take a chance.” He glanced over at the sheep as if mustering the courage to go on, and when he caught her gaze again, there was a deep, genuine affection in his soft brown eyes. “Don’t let fear of the unknown douse your inner fire. Don’t let it turn you away from what may be the greatest thing in your lifetime. When I see the spark between you and Talvi, I can only hope that I’ll experience it for myself one day.”

“How can you say that when you have Hilda?”

Finn sighed and looked at her for a while longer, studying her face. There seemed to be so much more that he wanted to say. A cool shiver ran through her body and he put his arm around her. She leaned her head against his shoulder and took a deep breath, feeling calm almost immediately. It reminded her of the night when he’d persuaded her not to get in a fight with his cousin. Finn felt safe and warm, an infinite source of comfort.

“Perhaps I’m as protective of my heart as you are of yours,” he confessed. “Now let’s get back to the others, shall we? I believe there’s a peach tart with my name on it.”

Chivanni was the self-appointed head chef, and with his magic he easily multiplied the pie that was leftover from the other night. This way when the boys came in for dinner, they all received their reward for finding sea monkeys. But not without a fight.

“You don’t get any dinner until you wash your hands,” Yuri said. They just looked at her like she was crazy and headed for the set table. Dardis turned her palm up and lifted it in the air, causing everything on the table to levitate out of their reach. They looked at Dardis and Yuri with awe.

“I mean it. No clean hands, no dinner. And you may only eat with a spoon and fork. No more eating with your hands. My twin brother is right in that you are all very disgusting in your manners,” Yuri insisted with her hands on her hips. They grumbled a response, but remarkably, they did know how to use spoons, and sat about the floor devouring their dinner. When someone flung food across the room, Chivanni seized all of their bowls, floating them up to the ceiling.

“If you don’t like the food I cooked for you, you don’t get to eat it,” he told them when the boys began to whine. As soon as they realized that they would indeed like to finish their supper, and possibly have seconds, they apologized to the fairy.

“That’s more like it,” Chivanni beamed, and down the bowls came, back into their eager hands. Dinner went without further incident as the adults sat at the table and swapped stories of how productive the boys had been all day. But after a while Zaven had to ask what everyone was wondering.

“Say, does anyone know what happened to Talvi?” he asked. “Has anyone even seen him since this morning?” Annika just shook her head ‘no’ along with everyone else.

“I thought surely someone might have spoken to him,” Finn said, filling a bowl with rice and vegetables. “Did anyone see which direction he went?”

“He went East, that’s all I know,” Dardis said, picking at her food.

“Did he at least stop to apologize to you?” Yuri asked. The blue-haired fairy frowned a little, pushing a piece of carrot across her plate.

“No.”

“So, no one knows where he might have gone?” Justinian said irritably.

Right at that moment, the door swung open and Talvi sauntered in with his bow in one hand, and set it in the corner. It fell down as soon as he walked away from it, but he didn’t appear to have heard it hit the floor.

“And where have you been all day?” Finn asked in a patronizing tone.

“Getting warmed up the old-fashioned way, you might say. I neglected to bring my cloak with me, and it’s supposed to snow tonight,” Talvi said, carelessly grabbing a plate from the counter top. “Whass for dinner?” He fell into a seat directly across from Annika. Zaven wrinkled his nose. His cousin reeked of alcohol.

“Stir fried vegetables with rice, and a beet salad sprinkled with sheep’s cheese,” Hilda informed him.

“I hope to the gods that you weren’t the one who made it,” he groaned. Hilda looked greatly insulted, and at a loss for words, although there were a few stifled laughs from around the table.

“So what did you do to stay warm?” Annika asked him, giving her best smile. But when he looked at her, his malicious expression drained all of her happiness.

“Well,” he began to spoon rice onto his plate, spilling more onto the table than he managed to get on his dish, “I ran into some
very
old friends.”

“And you didn’t invite them to dinner?” Dardis frowned. “That was rude, but then you’ve been on such a streak lately…”

“Oh, I invited them alright. They said,” his mouth curled upwards into a smug, lecherous grin, “they were
coming
right after me.” Right then there was a knock at the door, and he rose once again to answer it. Besides the fact that he was loaded, there was something else not quite right with the way he looked, but Annika couldn’t put her finger on it. There was some indecipherable talking as he was greeted with slender arms wrapping around his hips. Two petite and beguiling creatures stepped into the house, all but draping themselves on either side of him. The young women wore leather pants with fringe running down the backs of their calves and a red sash belted around long olive green shirts that laced up both sides. Their long hair was dark brown and their skin quite tan, with small noses and almond shaped eyes. They were absolutely gorgeous.

“
Vrazneet elansee
, Finn?” one of them asked in a strange tongue.

“Chabi?” Finn whispered, wide eyed. He looked like he’d seen a ghost. The taller girl let go of Talvi and slinked over to Finn, and climbed right into his lap.

“
Oolam nezdroit
,” she sighed in his ear, curling her fingers under his jaw the way one might win over a cat. The other girl kept her arm around Talvi as he led her back to the table to sit beside him. Finn looked helpless and flustered with the seductive woman in his lap, an expression that he wasn’t accustomed to wearing.

“This is Chabi and her friend Cherbi, everyone,” he informed quickly, which only made Hilda glare at him even more in disapproval, if that was possible. Not only did Finn have this woman fawning over him, but he knew them both on a first-name basis?

“I know who they are,” Sariel said. She set down her fork and crossed her arms as she scowled at the guests. “They’re the Samodivi of the East.” Chabi said something to Sariel in her language and Runa appeared intrigued. The seductive woman in Finn’s lap stood up and reached into a satchel she was wearing, then pulled out a tall, narrow bottle of dark liquid. Then she pulled out another, and then another, until she had six of them sitting in a row on the large table.

“Is that what I think it is?” Runa cried in delight and clapped her hands merrily. “Is that how you kept warm today?”

“It most certainly is,” Talvi replied, gloating at Annika as he put his arm around Cherbi’s waist. Runa hopped up to find enough glasses for everyone, with Hilda happy to join her.

“I didn’t know they still made this,” said Finn, examining a bottle astutely to keep Chabi from sitting back down in his lap. “Do you even know how rare it is?”

“What is it?” Zaven asked naïvely.

“Only the finess blackberry fairy brandy in exissence!” Talvi slurred, yet he still managed to expertly uncork one of the bottles. “Father would juss die if he knew I had six bottles
given
to me, not counting what I’ve already had. It’s not as though we kept track of time” He poured everyone a small glass, taking care to serve Runa and Dardis first, and Annika last. She lifted her glass halfheartedly as Runa made a toast in honor of the bumper blackberry crop that summer, and of running into old friends. Annika wanted desperately to talk to Talvi in private about the advice Finn had given her, so she stared into his bloodshot eyes, trying to convey her urgency.

Talvi, I need to talk to you! I need to talk to you right now!

“Ah…so now you wanna talk?” he slurred again, as he swirled the brandy in his glass. “Issa little late for that, don’t you think?” He tilted his head back and swallowed the rest of the dark liquid in one gulp. Cherbi stood up to give him a refill, and Annika felt her stomach lurch. There on the wood nymph’s little waist, was his belt. Justinian stood up to excuse himself, setting his empty dessert plate beside the sink.

“I’m going to need a few extra hands feeding the sheep,” he said, trying to act casual, but Annika knew for a fact that the sheep had been fed. “In particular, yours, yours, yours…and you three as well.” He had pointed to Nikola, Sariel, Zaven, Finn, Yuri and Annika.

“Oh, I want to help feed the sheep too!” Runa called, but Justinian shook his head.

“Someone needs to help Hilda tuck those boys into bed,” he said as his selected helpers went to join him. “We won’t be long.” He motioned to Hilda, who had already begun ushering the sleepy children twice her size to their bedrooms.